DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang today criticised acting PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang for saying that Syariah and hudud laws which have long been practised in Saudi Arabia can be used as a model for peace and security.

Lim said Saudi Arabia's Syariah and Hudud Law similar to that of the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Offences (Hudud and Qisas) Bill has been described by Amnesty International (AI) Saudi Arabia as "a justice system without justice".

"It has been a culture shock to me to read the massive literature on human rights and the justice system in Saudi Arabia available on the Internet, describing the deplorable human rights record," said Lim in a statement.

"I believe I have read enough about the condition of human rights and the justice system in Saudi Arabia to say that Malaysians who accept or do not oppose Saudi Arabia as the model for an Islamic state based on its Syariah law, have lost the right to speak on human rights," he said.

Oppressive laws

The former Opposition Leader also condemned Saudi Arabia's justice system as being "100 times more draconian and oppressive than the (use of the) ISA".

"By stating this, I am in no way defending or condoning the gross violation of human rights or abuses in the Malaysian justice system," Lim said.

Citing the AI report, Lim said Saudi Arabia's Syariah law perpetuates a wide range of human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention, the incarceration of prisoners of conscience, torture, secret and summary trials, cruel judicial punishment and executions all facilitated by the state's policy of secrecy and the prohibition of the right to express conscientiously held beliefs.

Executions and amputations

Lim claimed that AI statistics show that 1,163 executions had been carried out in Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 1999.

Therefore, he refuted Hadi's statement which said that hudud convictions are virtually impossible to secure in Saudi Arabia because punishment cannot be meted out if there is even 0.01 percent of doubt, or that the law would deter crime.

AI said the main reasons for the high number of executions are due to the wide scope of the death penalty, the vague laws used to impose it and a defective criminal justice system which allows the court to impose such sentences with few procedural safeguards.

The AI report said the figures also indicated a rising trend in the use of the death penalty, from an average annual of 29 between 1980 and1986, to 73 from 1987 to Dec 1999.

"AI said it recorded 90 judicial amputations in Saudi Arabia between 1981 and Dec 1999, including at least five cases of cross amputation (right hand and left foot), although the actual figure is believed to be higher," Lim said.

Controversy over Bill

In recent weeks, the Terengganu government's move to table the hudud and qisas laws had been vigorously opposed, particularly by the federal government, political parties, non-governmental organisations and women's groups.

The bill, passed by the Terengganu state assembly last Monday, criminalises theft, robbery, extramarital sex, liquor consumption, apostasy and armed rebellion.

Provisions relating to rape were criticised as being discriminatory towards women. The law would require the victim to present four Muslim male witnesses to the act to enable the court to consider a conviction.

However, two controversial provisions which called for lashing or death by stoning if a rape victim is found to have made a slanderous accusation, were deleted from the bill.

The Syariah bill still needs to be delivered to the state ruler for Royal assent before it becomes law. However, the federal government could still block the law under its constitutional powers.

PAS tried in 1993 to impose Syariah criminal laws in neighbouring Kelantan, which it also controls, but the move was vetoed by the federal government.